World BBQ

Let the Turks have their shish kebab and Indonesians their sate. I raise my fork for churrasco (pronounced shoe-HRA-skoo), Brazil’s spit-roasted version of barbecue. So when a young Memphis, Tennessee entrepreneur, Blake Carson, offered to send one of his rodizio grills to Barbecue University, I couldn’t say yes fast enough. Eyes popped and jaws dropped when students realized they could reproduce the Brazilian steakhouse experience in their own backyards. Blake has designed a new...

If eating meat is a crime, then vegetarians have a high rate of recidivism. According to a new study by the Humane Research Council, 84 percent of American vegetarians eventually return to eating meat, a third within three months. Five out of six “find their way back to a nice juicy steak,” reports the New York Daily News.
No surprise here. Steak is the emblem of carnivores everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. Below are 12 of the best grilled steaks you’ll find across Planet Barbecue (with links to recipes).
“Caveman” T-Bone Steak with Hellfire Hot Sauce (USA)...

Is sausage the new bacon? Artisanal sausage restaurants are popping up like proverbial mushrooms after a rainstorm. My stepson runs one—Jake’s Handcrafted in Brooklyn. Check it out and tell Jake that Steven sent you. According to Nielsen data, sausage sales more than doubled in the last 10 years, topping 4 billion dollars.
Germany remains the world’s undisputed sausage capital with over 1,200 distinct varieties. But sausages are enjoyed all over Planet Barbecue, from Thailand’s sai krok Isan (sweet fermented pork sausage) to Spanish morcilla (blood sausage spiked with cumin). If you’ve never...

A sauce has the power to transform the simplest grilled seafood or chicken into an event. You now know about regional American barbecue sauces and the sauces of South America. Today, we look at some of the best grilling condiments you may have never heard of: the barbecue sauces of Europe.
Salsa Verde (Italy): Don’t confuse this one with Mexico’s tomatillo-based sauce of the same name. Italy’s venerable salsa verde (“green sauce”) includes all the components of a good vinaigrette, and more: freshly chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley; olive oil (the best and freshest...

It’s the antithesis of the modern North American stainless steel super grill (you know, that propane-fired monster with multiple heat zones, infrared sear station and industrial strength rotisserie).
But when it comes to providing maximum grilling efficiency in minimal space, few grills can beat its direct, concentrated, blast-furnace heat.
It’s the compact Japanese-style tabletop grill known in the West as the hibachi. Without it there would be no yakitori or robatayaki.
Get the Yakitori Like They Make It in Japan recipe....

The quesadilla burst onto America’s culinary landscape in the 1990s. It was love at first bite. We loved the earthy-flavored, chewy-crisp tortillas, the gooey filling of melted cheese, the sting of the jalapeños. In true American fashion, we made Mexico’s “grilled cheese sandwich” our own, piling on chicken, duck, shrimp, even lobster. Makes you wonder if some of the more extravagant versions still contain cheese.
In much of Mexico, quesadillas are actually cooked on a comal...

“The best sauce in the world is hunger,” observed Cervantes. (La mejor salsa del mundo es la hambre.)
I bet the author of Don Quixote never tasted Argentinean chimichurri or molho à companha from Brazil.
Argentinians could no more imagine grilled beef without their tangy, garlicky, olive oil- and herb-based chimichurri than Brazilians could dig into traditional churrasco (a belt-loosening array of spit-roasted meats carved off sword-like spits directly onto your dinner plate) without a bowl of onion- and chile-laced molho à companha (country salsa).
We North Americans may think we have a monopoly on barbecue sauce. But since the moment our prehistoric...

Sometimes, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Some years ago, I found myself at a book signing with a much larger crowd than expected. We had bratwurst -- provided by one of my TV sponsors at the time, Wisconsin-based Johnsonville Sausage, LLC. We had a grill -- that mammoth kettle-on-steroids known as the Weber Ranch (the one so many of you have e-mailed us about). What we did not have was manpower -- trained volunteers able to cook the brats without turning...